


Blooms Among the Thorns

by elizabeth1972



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Assassin's Creed Last Descendants
Genre: F/M, Original Female Character - Freeform, fanfiction based on works by Matthew J. Kirby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 23:24:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabeth1972/pseuds/elizabeth1972
Summary: This is the first story I've written in several years.  I am really out of practice.  It is really rough and could probably do with more work.  Maybe I will rewrite it in the future and expand it.  It is 9,370 word piece.  I hope the reader(s) will enjoy this tale.If anyone reads my story, please feel free to send me a comment on any likes, dislikes, criticism, "good job", or and "Eh"s.Thank you!!!!





	Blooms Among the Thorns

Anna O’Meara, unlike a lot of her mother countrymen, didn’t grow up in an almshouse in New York. Her family was fortunate to hold a job working for the Cormac family ever since Shay Patrick Cormac hired them in the late spring of 1783. He was often away from home on business and didn’t want to leave his wife and child alone. Anna’s grandparents had left their home in Ireland to make a better life for themselves in the newly formed country of the United States. They were very fortunate to have met Captain Cormac when they disembarked from the ship Albion May. Captain Cormac treated her family very well because of their ability to not speak of what goes on at the Cormac residence. Anna believed that was why each generation since worked for the Cormacs. Her family had earned their trust.

She grew up believing that the Cormacs were military or militia family of some sort who worked for the government as the household was run in a military fashion and often high ranking military officials visited. She started working for the family when she turned 6-years old instead of going to school. She accompanied both her parents to the Cormac’s home, Fort Arsenal, every day, seven days a week, with shortened hours for Sunday services and holidays. She helped her mother wash the linens and the family’s clothing, do any mending, prepare food, and scrub the woodwork and floors. It was long, hard work but the Cormacs paid well enough that none of the family had to find other work, and they demanded very little extra services. When her brother was born three years later, she did all of her mother’s work while she recuperated for a few days. Her little brother would stay at home with her grandparents until he was old enough to join their father taking care of the grounds, chopping wood, making general repairs, and whatever else needed to be done for the family.

Anna never knew the patriarch, Shay Cormac, or at least she didn’t remember him. He had passed before she turned 6 years-old. From her grandparents, she knew that Shay Cormac was kind, helpful to those in need, owned various properties, and was, to her grandparents, saintly. To them, he was an extended family member and would defend him vehemently against anyone who dared to say a bad word against his name. They had told her that when she was an infant, Captain Cormac and his grandson would sometimes visit their home to hold and play with her. 

Anna worked for Shay’s son, who was the complete opposite personality of the Captain. Shay’s grandson was five or six years older than Anna. She would often see him in the morning eating his breakfast in the kitchen instead of the dining room with his father. He would always have a smile for her and try to entice her to play a game with him. When he would ask, she would look to her mother who would shake her head almost minutely. Anna smiled, shook her head, and curtsied towards him before quickly moving onto her next chore. She hated to see his face when she had to reject his offer to play. Sometimes though, they would create their own games to play that no one knew they played. She grew to adore the young Master Cormac.

Young Master Cormac was friendlier than his father and would greet everyone. His father was more of an authoritarian personality, where everyone had their place in his hierarchy. After breakfast, the elder would take the younger outside for sword/dagger practice or to run him through endless obstacle courses before he went to school. He would come home by lunchtime to eat with his father, and then more training in the afternoon. Anna never saw the younger playing with other children, except for herself and her brother. She often thought to herself about how miserable he must be at times in this house when her or her brother was home.

Anna didn’t go to school but parents saw that she learned to read, write, able to understand simple mathematics, along with the other “womanly” things that girls learned at home in the evenings. She thrived in her education and had a desire to learn more. As a special treat, they would allow Anna to purchase a newspaper sometimes, where she would read the articles over and over again until almost all the ink had worn off on her hands. As she grew older, she was never aware of someone watching her, and her love of reading. Sometimes surprise packages would show up on her family’s doorstep addressed to her in tight, well scripted handwriting. Often the packages would contain a book or penny novels wrapped up in paper. No one ever saw who the mysterious gift giver was, but Anna appreciated them very much whoever they were. 

When he was at home and not training, Master Cormac’s son often sought out Anna. He would watch and smile at her when she was near. He would tease her when she couldn’t play; like sneaking up behind her to gently tug on her hair braids, move into her way, or steal her bucket of soapy water. His father would scold him whenever he caught his son in Anna’s presence. Anna overheard him talking to his father once when she was about 10 years old. 

He asked his father why Anna never said a word. She was mortified when the elder gave his answer. “She is a mute. She doesn’t speak because she can’t speak. If she wasn’t employed by our family, she would just grow up to become a whore or worse.” After that conversation, the younger Cormac didn’t tease Anna much and she dearly missed it. He became very quiet around her as if in deep thought or he would stare at her with a sad look on his face. She tried not to show that it bothered her. Instead she would smile at him as always and continue on with her work as if everything was fine. 

Anna wanted to scream at the top of her lungs but didn’t. She could speak. She could write. She could balance accounts. She could hold conversations with people, just not with the Cormacs; or other people who intimidated her. Anna was intimidated by a lot of people. She didn’t socialize with many people because she never really learned how to socialize. She was always embarrassed by conversations, so she didn’t speak unless she was with her family or if it was necessary. 

One morning before leaving for work, Anna found a package someone had left on the doorstep for her. It was addressed to her in the same tight, neat lettering as all the times before. Inside the package was a book on sign language. Anna smiled as she ran her fingers over the book. She believed she knew who her secret gifter was: the younger Cormac. She quickly took the book to her room and then ran after her parents to go to work. She thought it was very generous and kind of him to give her this book because it meant that he wanted to communicate with her. Later that day when she found him alone in the library, she gave him a hug and a kiss to his cheek. He wrapped his arms around her and just held her until they heard his father’s footsteps coming towards them. Anna went back to scrubbing the floor and the younger Cormac worked on his homework from school before his father came into the room. 

Over the next few months, the younger Cormac tried to talk to Anna with sign language, which caused her to smile more frequently at him. He was an intelligent young man but his training with his father and school work left him little time to learn the signs with confidence. His gestures never quite matched his spoken words; for example, he once thanked her for the delicious donkey balls instead of Irish stew. The more she smiled at him, the more it encouraged him. Sometimes, she helped him form the signs better by taking his hand and bending his fingers into the correct position. 

One day, when he was having difficulty remembering a sign, Anna held his hands and smiled at him before signing to him, “I’m not deaf. I hear quite well Master Cormac. You don’t need to sign for me to understand you.” His face reddened, “Well, I feel like a complete ass.” She signed back to him, “Never. It was very sweet that you thought to try this. And you would have needed to learn the signs to be able to understand me.” He feigned a hurt face, “Is that why you always smile at me when I sign?” She smiled at him and nodded her head at him. He laughed and smiled before his father came into the kitchen.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere. You were supposed to meet me ten minutes ago for training, and where do I find you? Sniffing around this girl again. She’s too young to be fucked by you, and you don’t need to be getting her hopes up of moving up in society.” Anna was shocked by the elder Cormac’s words and quickly curtsied and went outside to gather things out of the cellar to start the masters’ dinner, but she could still hear the argument of her employers quite loudly. She adored her young master, loved playing games and just having a conversation with him, but she knew her place. She knew not to get attached to him because one day he would marry and have his own children, and she would be the servant. 

“You are a fucking asshole, you know that? I was just trying to be nice and have a conversation with her since I don’t get to have any friends. She’s worked for our family since she was 6-years old, and not once have you had a nice thing to say about her or her family,” said the younger. “That’s because they are servants and get paid regardless if I like them or not,” said the elder. “Grandfather would be ashamed of you,” said the younger. “Really? Would he? I’m sure he would have a few things to say about trying to fuck the help,” said the elder said with a sarcastic laugh. 

The arguments between the father and son became more frequent and lasted longer as time passed. When Anna was 14-years old, the younger Cormac had turned 20-years old. He and his father got into a huge argument that came to physical blows. The younger Cormac left the house. He never came back while the elder lived. Anna missed his presence every day and the elder made her life miserable for the first few years because he felt that she was the cause of his son leaving. She worked harder and longer hours to make the elder forget his threat of replacing her family as the house’s servants. 

With the younger Cormac out of the house and away from his father, Anna would sometimes see him on the street or at the market when she was purchasing groceries or running errands for the elder Cormac. She would smile in his direction but if he noticed, she never knew. He would be with a bunch of other rough looking men. Often, he would have bruises on his face or some body part was covered in bandages. It broke Anna’s heart to see him in that state. She wanted to drag him home and take care of him whether or not he protested, but would lose her nerve after the first step in his direction. She knew her station and she never went to him because she didn’t want to cause him any shame. She did admire the younger though, because he could and did stand up to his father; something that she wanted to do but never could.

She stayed working for the elder Cormac after her parents “retired” to work out of their home and care for her brother’s children. Her brother didn’t want to follow in their parents footsteps. Both he and his wife took good jobs working for a clothing manufacturer on the other side of the city. Anna wasn’t sad about it. She rather enjoyed having the entire house to herself. The elder Cormac was often out of town, and the place was quite peaceful. She didn’t have as much to do when the elder was away. She would sometimes go to the family’s library to read after she finished her daily chores. Some of the volumes she had never heard of before, and they were filled with wonderful stories of knights and villains. 

In the fall of 1844, Anna happened to overhear a conversation of her master’s that he knew his son had taken a job as a bartender at a Five Corners’ dump called A Hole In the Wall for some gang boss named William Tweed. She had worried about her young master often when she no longer saw him on the streets. She would look for him whenever her elder master would send her out on errands across the city. Five Corners was notorious for its tenements and crime. To hear that her young master now worked there as a bartender for a gang boss made Anna want to hunt him down and drag him back to his home by his ears, if necessary. In her mind she could do that, but in reality, Anna was timid and would probably run away if someone said boo to her if she ever entered Five Corners. 

In the spring of 1845, the elder Master Cormac had travelled to London on a business trip. Anna expected to be gone for 2 months and he was due back within the next day or two. She began changing out the linens in anticipation of her master’s arrival, when the door bells chimed. She wasn’t expecting any deliveries so she quickly made her way downstairs and answered the door. She was surprised by a thin waif of a boy wearing thread barren clothes. 

“’Cuse me miss. Is Master Cormac’s son in residence?” the young boy asked. She shook her head, “No. I’m sorry my young master is not in. Is there something that I can help you with?” “I was told to deliver this message to him from my captain. The elder Cormac, he kicked the bucket on the voyage home,” the boy said nervously. A little shocked, Anna nodded her head, taking the letter, “I will deliver the message to Master Cormac. Where can Master Cormac’s father be picked up for burial?” “Sorry miss. We had to bury him at sea. We didn’t have anything to preserve his body with,” said the boy quickly. Anna took a few coins that Master Cormac had near the door for delivers and tipped him for the message. 

When Anna closed the door, she knew what she had to do. She had to find her young master and bring him home. She had to be brave. She owed it to her master to find him and deliver the message. Anna grabbed her coat and shawl, locked the house, and started walking towards the last place she knew where to find the young Master Cormac, A Hole in the Wall, in Five Corners. She hoped that he still worked there or that someone knew where she could find him. 

About thirty minutes later, she managed to find the place minus a few drunken men following her and yelling obscene things at her. When she walked in through the establishment’s door, she noticed it was full of mostly drunken Irishmen. They tried to grab her to pull her onto their laps as she passed by them. Looking towards the bar, she saw her master. He wore the typical uniform of a bartender, though his shirt was dingy and looked tight on his body, a pair of dark trousers and a dingy white apron wrapped around his waist. He had grown more muscular since last she had seen him. He had a few more scars and his chestnut brown hair was longer and completely uncontrollable. He had a few days growth of a beard that made him look older than he was. She had an overwhelming urge to pull him back to his family’s house to make him take a bath, give him a haircut and a shave, and dress him in a clean set of clothes.

He was serving a gentleman with a hose as she made her way to the bar. Standing across from him, he didn’t look at her, he just said, “I’ll be with you in a minute sugartits.” When he did look at her, he looked her up and down with a quizzical brow. “You sure you’re in the right place sugartits?” Her face didn’t register with him. She gave him a small smile and held the letter out to him. He took the letter from her and looked at her again as if she had handed him poison to drink. She signed to him, “I’m sorry Master Cormac.” She could literally see the moment when recognition hit him. His eyes became wider with surprise. He pulled his half-apron off, hurried around the bar, took Anna by the hand, and yelled, “I’m taking a break.” The men in the bar started whooping and saying things, like “Going to give her your bone, eh Cudgel,” “Don’t break her Cudgel. We want our turn,” and “Why does Cudgel get the nice piece of ass first?” 

He led Anna through the back of the bar and out into the alleyway. He put his hand to her cheek, tilted her head up so he could look into her eyes. “It is you, isn’t it? My little Anna, all grown up,” he said before she placed her hand on his and smiled. “Now why is it you are sorry?” he asked. She signed to him, “Your father….he’s passed away on his voyage back from London. The captain couldn’t preserve his body. They buried him at sea.” Cudgel showed no emotion, whether it was from a lack of caring or not being able to keep up with her signing, she couldn’t tell. He tucked the letter inside one of his vest pockets and pulled her close in a hug.

“I’ll walk you home to make sure none of these miscreants follow you,” he said as he surveyed the area before walking her out of the alley and into the streets. “Do you still live in Greenwich?” he asked. Anna nodded her head as he started to pull her to move faster. When she got his attention, she signed to him, “I need to go back to the house to cover the mirrors and to place the wreaths on the door.” He came to a stop, “What?” “I need to take care of the house first before I go home,” she signed. He let go of her hand and was about to say something to her, when she ignored him and continued to walk towards the Cormac family home to go back to work. 

He followed her, constantly looking over his shoulders and scanning the area. She wondered why he was so paranoid. As she approached the front door of the home, she noticed the door slightly open. She knew she had locked it before going to find her master. She looked back at her master before she opened the door. He pulled her out of the way just before an arrow whizzed by, causing her to scream. Cudgel quickly peaked into the doorway, and they both heard something shatter. “Damn vermin!” he said before he charged into the doorway. 

Anna’s heart was racing in her chest. Someone had fired an arrow when she opened the door. If it hadn’t been for Master Cormac, the arrow would have been buried in her chest. Why would someone do that? Then she remembered he had gone inside after the intruder. Anna took a deep breath and quickly entered the house going straight to the kitchen. She grabbed a cast iron skillet and started checking rooms off the kitchen. That’s when she heard something break in the library. She could only think of someone hurting her master. She peaked into the room and saw a hooded man struggling with her master, who was on the floor, trying to stop the man from stabbing him with a knife. 

Anna quickly ran into the room and swung the cast iron skillet as hard as she could at the intruder’s head, making contact. The intruder fell to the floor with his legs and arms twitching slightly. When Anna noticed the blood oozing out on the floor, she dropped the skillet. Cudgel was on his feet and pulling her against his chest saying, “Don’t look. Please don’t look.” She started crying on Cudgel’s chest because she knew that she had killed the intruder. 

Cudgel held her head against his shoulder and rubbed her back, “Shhh. It’s not your fault. You were protecting me. I’ll talk to Boss Tweed and he’ll send some men over to take care of this. Don’t think about this again, ok, Anna.” Tears were still running down her face when she looked up at him. The hardened exterior that he had worked so hard to cultivate melted. He kissed her forehead, wiping some tears from her face with his fingers before holding Anna close to him again. The smell of the perfume in her hair was one of his favorites, though he knew it wasn’t really perfume but the soap that her mother and grandmother made at their home. 

Most of the other women in his life were too poor for anything extravagant like perfume or perfumed soaps. He looked over at the dead man and knew that he had seen him before in the bar. He must have been watching Cudgel for some reason and with the hood; he now knew the man was an Assassin. He wondered why the Assassin was here and whether or not the Brotherhood had something to do with his father’s recent death. Boss Tweed didn’t have him on anything that would attract the attention of the Brotherhood, so it must be something that his father was working on before he left for London. 

He picked Anna up and carried her out of the library, into the main parlor and sat her down on the couch. He went over to where his father kept his whiskey and poured two glasses. He handed her a glass before sitting down beside her. “Drink it. It will help calm your nerves,” he told her. He made sure that she drank it before he downed his. “Do you happen to know anything about what my father was working on?” he asked her. She looked at him and shook her head. 

The whiskey burned all the way down her throat and made her belly feel warm. He took her hands into his, “I’m going to go and talk to Boss Tweed. I don’t want you to go back in the library ok? I want you to stay right here, ok?” She got a panicked look on her face before she wrapped her arms around him. He felt so hard and soft at the same time. Rather than trying to push her away, he held her for a few moments slowly rubbing his chin across the top of her head. “Anna, I need you to look at me,” he said.

He kissed her forehead, “Anna, you’ll be ok. That man was not here for you. He was here for me; my family. Did my father ever tell you what my family does?” She shook her head. He held her face between his hands, “My family are Templars. We work to keep the world safe from the Brotherhood of Assassins. That man in there, in the library, is an Assassin. What he was looking for I’m not sure. Did my father say anything or do anything out of the ordinary before he left for London?” he asked her. Again, she shook her head. Cudgel let out a sigh, “Of course not. He thought you were stupid because you can’t speak.”

Anna looked at Cudgel and did her best to make herself speak, “I…I…can…speak when…when…I’m…not nervous.” Cudgel looked at Anna with a shocked look on his face, before it became a smile. He kissed her lips. “All grown up, beautiful, and can speak. My little Anna is ever a surprise for me,” he said as he moved a strand of her hair away from her face. “Can you do something for me? I need you to be brave for me. I need to go to Tweed and get some help to get this body out of the house. I want you to lock the doors and not to let anyone in until I return, ok?” Anna nodded her head at him. “That’s my girl,” he said before he kissed her forehead again. 

She got up off the couch and followed him to the front door. When he left, she locked the doors and leaned against them. Thinking of what still must be done, she went back to the kitchen and started a fire in the stove. She would need to clean up the blood once the body was gone. She pulled a large pot out of one of the cabinets and filled it with water at the pump that the elder Cormac had installed a couple of years ago. Once it was filled, she placed it on the stove and went back to the parlor to have another glass of whiskey. The second glass didn’t burn as much as the first and her arms and legs were starting to feel really nice and loose. The third glass gave her a little bit of courage and she disobeyed her master.

Part of her needed to see that the intruder was indeed dead and not just knocked out. She walked into the library and saw all the blood pooled around the body. He was definitely dead. She went closer and gently pulled the hood back to see who she had killed; to see if it was someone she knew. The man had a full head of jet black hair. He had Native American features but his skin tone was as white as hers. She moved a clump of hair hiding the man’s face and immediately recognized him from the market where she purchased groceries for Master Cormac and her family. What was his name…Thomas, Thompson, or something completely different? She wondered who else was an Assassin that she had an acquaintance. 

The door chimed startling her. She closed the door to the library slightly before going to answer the chimes. She opened the speakeasy panel to speak to the person ringing. “Hello madam. I was wondering if the Master of the house was available,” said a man wearing a long duster type coat and a wide brimmed hat. She made sure the door was completely locked, “I’m sorry but my master is unavailable at the moment. He went to make arrangements for his father’s memorial. He should be back soon if you would like to wait at the front gates.” She quickly closed the speakeasy panel and locked it as well. 

She reached under the side table where her master kept coins for deliveries and other things. She knew he kept a loaded pistol and a dagger just underneath the desktop. The man at the front door rang again. This time when she stood a little away from the speakeasy panel before she opened it. “Madam. It is very important for you to let me into the house to wait for your master.” She shook her head, “I’m sorry sir, but my master left very specific orders. You wouldn’t want me to lose my job, would you? If you would like to wait, you can wait at the gate.” She was ready to close the speakeasy when the man tossed something inside. 

Anna was knocked back by a percussive bomb. Her ears were ringing and couldn’t get her balance. The man at the door had reached his arm inside and was trying to reach the locking mechanisms to get inside. Anna took a deep breath before pulling the pistol with shaky hands. She cocked the firing mechanism and tried to take aim. When she fired, she must have been lucky because there was blood all over the inside of the door and the man was cursing at her. She quickly reached for the portal to close and lock it. She needed to think of where the elder Cormac stored his gunpowder and his mini-balls for the pistol. 

The whole time she was searching, the man was cursing her and pounding on the door, saying that he was going to slice her open with the greatest of pleasures. He was in mid-sentence when he suddenly stopped speaking. There came a knocking at the door, “Anna. It’s me, Cudgel. Unlock the door honey.” Relieved, Anna ran to the door and unlocked it to let him in. Cudgel had taken care of the man at the door. Some of Tweed’s men were carrying his body off. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly. He gently picked her up and walked her into the parlor again for another glass of whiskey. 

Some men entered behind him, “The other man is in the library, straight into the first room on the right.” He sat her down again on the couch. He pulled the tails of his shirt out and wiped part of her face that she hadn’t noticed covered in blood before getting her more whiskey. The fourth glass made her feel warm all over. She felt the need to take the pins out of her hair to let it fall down around her shoulders. He couldn’t say anything as she ran her fingers through it, shaking it completely loose. He stayed with her trying to assure her that everything would be ok. All of which was lost on her because she suddenly couldn’t concentrate. She was just thankful that he came back and was wondering why she had never noticed that he had the most beautiful hazel eyes; or were they light brown, almost the same color as the deliciously wonderful whiskey. 

A few minutes later a man came in and said everything was done before Cudgel thanked him and escorted him to the door. When he came back Anna looked at him, “Was yours and your father’s lives this complicated and I was just too stupid to notice it before?” Cudgel sat on the floor in between her legs with his back leaning against the couch. He took a deep breath before answering, “No. Whatever my father was working on, it has got the Assassins riled up. He pulled the letter out of his pocket, opened and read it before refolding it and putting it back into his vest pocket. Anna wondered what Cudgel was thinking when he unbuttoned her boots and slipped them off her feet. She leaned forward and kissed the top of his head.

Cudgel leaned his head against her lap just so he could see her partially, to see how she was taking everything. She noticed it, smiled at him, and ran her fingers through his hair and massaged his scalp. Cudgel let out a slow moan, “No one has done that to me in a while. I’ve forgotten how good it felt.” When she pulled her hand away, he flipped over onto his knees and gave her a mischievous smile. When she smiled back at him, he kissed her lips slowly as if he was savoring every second of it. “Could I persuade you to go upstairs and let me do sinfully delicious things to your body?” he asked with a devilish smile and wagging his eyebrows. She gave him a smile back, “Do you think that would be wise given what today has already brought and it’s not over…” But he wasn’t listening. He had his mind set on one thing that he wanted to do with Anna; something that he had wanted to do with her since they were teenagers. 

While she was talking, Cudgel was running his hands up under her skirt and inside her underwear. He made slow lazy circles on clit while watching Anna close her eyes, moan and bit on her lower lip. When she opened her eyes again, he moved his finger towards her opening. “Master Cormac…” “Call me Cudgel. Everyone does,” he said as he started to work his finger inside. “You are being a naughty boy. I’m still a virgin,” she blurted out like a drunk telling the truth while trying to pull his hand away from her.. Cudgel stopped and looked at her, “You’ve never been with anyone? Not even like what I’m doing to you now.” Anna shook her head as Cudgel started to grin and kissed her. “You are a gift; a gift that tastes like whiskey,” he told her. She smiled at him before she kissed him back, “That’s because I’ve had a lot of whiskey lately.”

He got up, picked her up, and carried her upstairs to his old room. He set her on her feet, and kissed her while he unhooked the closures of her blouse. He kissed her neck as he undid her skirt and let it fall loosely to the floor. “Do you trust me, Anna?” he asked. She looked at him before nodding her head. He smiled again before he finished untying her underwear and pushed them off her hips. He picked her up and placed her on the edge of his bed, spreading her thighs. He stared at her for a few moments before going down on his knees, “Perfection. I’ve wanted to do this with you for so long.” 

Anna fell back onto the bed with his first lick. He took his time licking and sucking on her most intimate parts. He slowly massaged circles on her inner thighs with his hands. When he found her clit and gently sucked on it, she nearly came off the bed. Cudgel’s gentle attentions made her feel like her whole body was on fire with new sensations that she had never experienced before much like the whiskey. It didn’t take him long to make Anna come for him, leaving her breathless. Cudgel smiled against her leg and kissed it. 

She watched him stand up, pull his shirt off and take his pants off. When she sat up, he helped her out of corset and chemise. He took her hand and guided it to his manhood and showed her how he liked to be stroked. She surprised him when she took him in her mouth and sucked him. He praised her and moaned when she looked up at him still sucking on his cock. He pulled himself out of her mouth after a couple of minutes, telling her that if she continued her sucking he would come in her mouth and he didn’t want to do that just yet. 

He told her to move back further onto the bed. He followed her, stopping only to suck her hardened nipples. When he had her moaning and in need of him, he moved up and kissed her. “May I be your first lover? Tell me now while I can control myself,” he told her. She nodded her head and kissed his lips, “I love you. I’ve loved you since you bought me the sign language book.” He smiled at her before kissing her. “Are you just saying that because you are a little tipsy, or because you really want me?” he asked. “Define tipsy,” she said with a smile before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer for a kiss. “The first time will hurt and I’m sorry that I can’t make it hurt any less,” he told her as he rubbed his cock against her wet core. Not listening to him much, she nodded at him before kissing him again. 

He moved her legs and wrapped them around his waist before he slowly pushed himself inside her. He tried to muffle her scream with a deep kiss when he broke her maidenhood. She dug her nails into his back when he took her. He held still telling her that he was sorry for the pain, promising that it would go away soon. He kissed her and told her that he loved her until her body had relaxed from his sudden invasion. She loosened her grip on his back as the initial pain subsided and kissed him. She nodded her head at him when he asked if she was ok. 

He slowly moved in and out of her trying to be gently with her. He wanted her to like this. He wanted her to want to do this again and again with him. “Oh God, yes,” he shouted when she started matching his movements, grabbing his ass, and moaning in pleasure for him. Cudgel was so focused on making her experience pleasurable, that he came before he could pull out of her. He felt like an ass for that but she didn’t seem to mind. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. 

When she unwrapped her legs, Cudgel pulled out of her and lay beside her. She rolled over onto her side facing him, gave him a smile before kissing his lips softly, “Thank you.” Cudgel smiled at her, “No. I should be thanking you.” She kissed him again before crawling out of the bed and started to get dressed. He just watched her as she left his room and went downstairs. When she didn’t return after a couple of minutes, he was ready to crawl out of bed and see where she had run off. He was reaching for his pants when she came back in with a bowl, pitcher, and a couple of towels. She wetted one of the towels and started to clean her blood off him. 

He reached out and touched her face. “I’ve missed you,” he said. She looked at him, “I’ve missed you too.” For some reason he felt the need to confess some things to her. “When you were 14, I used to watch you sleep at night. I would climb in through your bedroom window until your father caught me. He told me to leave you alone, that my father would be ashamed of me. Not that that was a difficult thing to do,” he admitted. “Your father loved you despite what you think. He kept regular tabs on you. That’s how I knew where to find you,” she told him as she finished. 

Cudgel looked at her, “I never really knew my mother. I know she was someone that my father had gotten pregnant. He didn’t want to be stuck with her, but my grandfather made sure he married her. She died when I was 5, trying to give birth to my baby brother. I can barely remember what she looked like.” Anna reached out and touched his cheek, “Is that why he used to say all those horrible things?” He looked at her sadly before nodding his head. “He loved you. He didn’t want you to experience what he did. I can forgive him for those things.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead, “You can. I can’t. I enjoyed having another kid around to talk to sometimes. I was never allowed to play with other kids. It was always training and more training. I hated being here. I hated leaving because you were here.”

“I used to see you walking on the streets sometimes. You were usually beaten up and bandaged. I always wanted to hug you and drag you back home, but I never did because I didn’t want to embarrass you,” she admitted. He looked at her with a small smile, “I know. I used to purposely put myself in your path. It always made me sad that you never approached me, so after a while I stopped and threw myself into my job.” “We’re a sorry lot, now aren’t we?” she said. “That we are,” he replied as he ran his hand up under her blouse. “You’re incorrigible,” she said as she grabbed his hand through her blouse.

“I can’t help myself. A beautiful young woman whom I’ve always loved just let me be her first love,” he replied before kissing her again. She blushed and looked away from him. “I love when you blush. It makes you look more beautiful than you are already,” he said. He pulled her onto the bed beside him and held her close. When his grip loosened, she looked up to find that he had fallen asleep. She gently untangled herself from his arms, pulled a blanket up over his body, and went downstairs to make him dinner and to finish her chores for the day. 

He woke up to find himself alone in his old room. He smiled when he noticed that Anna had picked his clothes up off the floor, folded and placed them on the edge of the bed. He could smell fresh bread baking downstairs. He quickly dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen. He silently walked in, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her neck as she washed a few dishes. “I woke up alone. I had to ask myself whether or not I really made love to a beautiful woman earlier,” he said. She smiled at him, wiped her hands on a towel before turning around to kiss him. “It was all a hallucination. Too much of your father’s whiskey, I’m sure,” she teased.

“If that was a hallucination, then I need to drink more of my father’s whiskey,” he replied kissing more of her neck again. He had unhooked the top of her blouse when the door chimes chimed. He groaned before heading towards the door. She grabbed his hand and pulled him backwards. “That’s my job. Stay put,” she said as she fixed her blouse on her way to the front door to open the speakeasy portal. “May I help you?” she asked of an older, large gentleman. “I need to see Cudgel,” he replied. She looked towards Cudgel who nodded his head. She unlocked the door and opened it.

“Mr. Tweed. Please come into my father’s library. We can talk there,” Cudgel said. Anna closed the door and locked it before heading back into the kitchen. She finished the dishes, and pulled the bread out of the oven to cool. The stew she started was almost ready when Cudgel returned to her. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her cheek. “That was Boss Tweed. He is the Grand Master Templar for New York. He’s taken care of the bodies. They won’t be found for a long time.” She nodded her head.

“Come with me,” he asked suddenly. “To where?” she replied. “Come live with me in Five Corners. I’ll take good care of you,” he asked her. “You’re not coming home?” she asked a little shocked. He kissed her neck again, “This place is too much of a target. I’m selling it to the city to use as a poor housing.” “What work can I get in Five Corners?” she asked. “You’re not going to work. I’m going to take care of you,” he said. “You mean to marry me,” she asked. “No,” he replied and her heart sank into her stomach. “So I would be your mistress,” she said. “I hate that word. But, yes. You’ll want for nothing Anna. I promise,” he said. “And my family?” she asked. For that question he gave no answer and she knew they were not included. She would have no job, real income. Her parents would be ruined.

She made to move towards the stove, and he let her go. She grabbed a pot holder near the stove, pulled the stew off the stove, and set it on the trivet on the table in the kitchen. She walked over to the cabinet and took out a bowl and silverware. She came back to the table, ladled some stew into the bowl and placed it in front of an open chair with some silverware for Cudgel to use. He stared at her with a blank look on his face. When he didn’t sit down, she went outside to go into the cellar to get a bottle of wine. When she came back, Cudgel was gone. She looked throughout the house, but he was gone. 

She wiped tears away from her face that she didn’t notice while she searched the house for him. He was gone, and she didn’t know if he was coming back. She began to feel angry with herself for being so stupid to think that he would love her. She felt stupid for allowing him to use her. She would forever be ruined. She went on to finish her duties to the estate before locking the door behind her and going home to her family. When she arrived home, she told her parents that their Master had passed away on his voyage home and that the new master decided to sell the estate for poor housing. Her parents immediately worried. She tried to calm them by being optimistic that she would find a new job to help take care of the family. 

Anna ate very little that night before going to bed, though she didn’t sleep much. Every time she closed her eyes, she dreamed of her afternoon making love with Cudgel. He wanted her. Not as a wife, but as his mistress. She wanted him, but she also needed her family too. He made her choose. She chose her family in the end. She would sacrifice the happiness of his presence for her family. Besides, what good does being known as a mistress get her other than ostracized from society. She probably would never marry now because she gave herself to Cudgel. She was a ruined woman. Best to be an unmarried ruined woman than a mistress she told herself. Being a ruined woman at least gave the illusion of hope that some man would take pity on her for her one mistake. 

Cudgel just wanted to get drunk. He offered to take care of Anna and it wasn’t enough. His father was right all those years ago. He didn’t want to believe that Anna would only seek to improve her status, but she had asked about marriage. Just taking care of her was not enough; she wanted more. He couldn’t be around her after that. He left the house to go back to the bar. There, he understood those people. Anna, he thought he did, but he was completely wrong. So why was he drunk, on a roof, watching her parents freak out while she was calm? Why was she not sleeping but reading the paper? He decided that he had to be a masochist for watching her. He only left when she finally went to bed. 

Anna’s mother woke her the next morning with some coffee and bread. “I ironed your best dress this morning. I noticed that you had circled a few wanted ads for factory work. Are you sure this is what you want to do?” her mother asked. “There were no housekeeper postings. Factory work was the only thing,” Anna replied. When she was dressed and had combed and pinned up her hair, Anna told her parents that she needed to drop the estate’s key off to Mr. Cormac sometime that day while she was out looking for work. She didn’t want to see him, but she needed to give the key to his family’s home back to him. 

She had asked about employment at a couple of factories, where she was told that she was too old for the positions. They needed someone young, small and able to crawl under the weaving machines to clean out the broken threads and lint. Another job, she would have to live in a dormitory, where they would take rent out and send a portion of her pay to her parents. They wouldn’t allow anyone to live outside the dormitories. 

It was about mid-day when she decided to get one unpleasant thing out of the way. She made her way to Five Corners’ bar, A Hole in the Wall. The place was packed with drunks already. When he saw her, he said something to a woman near the bar and went out the way he took her yesterday. The same scary looking woman came up to her, “He doesn’t want to see you.” Anna looked the woman in her eyes as she held out the key to the estate, “Good. He’ll need to clean out the cellar of foods and other stuff, least the rats will come. The house and linens are cleaned and I covered the furniture with linen covers until he decides what to do with them.” The woman looked Anna up and down before taking the key out of her hand. Anna turned around and left the bar without another word. She hoped that she would never have to see the bar nor Five Corners ever again. 

Gallus Mag found Cudgel in the storage room rearranging the stock. “Cormac, she said that you’ll need to clean out the cellar of foods and stuff. The house is clean, and that she covered the furniture with linens,” she said to him as she flipped the key to him. “What? That’s it?” he asked as he caught the key with ease. “That’s it. Missy turned around and left as quickly as she came. What I don’t get is why big bad Cormac couldn’t talk to her, or have people overrated you all these years?” she said to him with a laugh before going back out into the bar. 

Cudgel sat against the wall and rubbed the key between his fingers. She had cleaned and took care of the house before leaving like a…like a faithful servant. He suddenly felt like a piece of shit. The faithful servant; that is what Anna was; a servant. She couldn’t be more faithful of a servant after putting up with his father’s bullshit for 17 years. It’s what his father always referred to her as even with her in the room. She worked to help support her family. How could he have forgotten that? She was more worried about them than a chance to let him make her happy. He felt like an asshole. He grabbed his coat before he ran out the backdoor and climbed up to the top of the building. He used his eagle sense to try to find the direction that she left. What he sensed was her being grabbed and pulled into an alleyway. He didn’t think; he just ran towards her. 

“Where is the artifact that Cormac had? Did he give it to his son?” some man was yelling at her. When she didn’t answer fast enough, he hit her in the stomach with his fist. Another man kept her from falling to the ground. “What artifact? I don’t know what you are asking about,” she told them. “Don’t play dumb with us. We know you were his housekeeper for several years. We know that you visited his son yesterday and again just now. It’s hard to hide something like Templar business unless you are a dimwit. Where’s the artifact?” the first man yelled at her again. “I visited his son yesterday to let him know of his father’s passing. I visited him today to give him the key to his house, since I am no longer employed. I don’t know of any damned artifact. I didn’t even know about Templars existed until yesterday, and I am not a dimwit,” she told them which only got her a punch to her face. 

“Let’s just slit the bird’s throat and leave her on the son’s doorstep. She is obviously useless to us,” said the man holding her. Before she could scream again, she was forced to the ground by the man holding her falling on top of her. She heard a loud snapping sound behind her before she heard Cudgel’s voice, “You picked the wrong person to lay a hand on.” She pushed the dead man from off herself and saw Cudgel kill the other man. Just looking at him made her start crying with relief. She had thought she would surely have her throat slit and left dead on his doorstep. He rushed to her and held her tight, “It’s ok. You’re safe Anna. You’re safe. I’m here.” When she looked up at him, he could tell that she was going to have a couple of good bruises. She placed her hand on his face and pulled him down for a kiss. 

He looked around before he led her out of the alleyway and walked her back to his family’s home. Once inside, he locked the doors. He grabbed her face gently and kissed her. When she put her arms around his neck, he picked her up and took her upstairs again. Only this time it was to his father’s room. He set her down, before going to the bed and pulling the sheets down. When he turned around she was already taking her clothes off. He smiled at her before coming to help her, “My beautiful Anna. If you want a marriage, we’ll marry but it will have to be a secret. I don’t want you to become a bigger target than you already are for them. If you want to keep this stupid fort, we’ll keep it. If you want a puppy, I’ll buy you a whole damn kennel of puppies. I just know that I can’t give you up. Not now, not ever.” “Then kill them all. Kill every last son of a bitch that would dare to threaten our children,” she said to him before kissing his lips and starting on his clothes. “Mmm. My little Anna has a vicious streak,” he teased her. She pulled his pants down and stroked him, “Cudgel, you’ve been a part of my family since I was 6; I want a family of my own with you; preferably not in Five Corners, because that place is....” He kissed her, “A very rough neighborhood.” She smiled at him, “I was going to say drunk-infested death trap, but a rough neighborhood works, I guess.” He laughed at her. 

“I need to know that my family is safe and provided for. I can’t leave them with no one to look out for them,” she told him. “I know. I figured it out. I’m not a normal person. You know that. You know how I grew up,” he looked away as he said it. She touched his face gently and made him look at her, “And you had me with you, for at least 8 years of it anyway. We’ll figure something out. But, until then, can we start working on our family.” He kissed her softly, “Get your beautiful ass in the bed and spread your legs for me.”

She kissed his lips before getting into the bed and spreading her legs as he had asked. He pulled his boots off and finished pulling his pants off before joining her. “I love you,” she told him. “I love you too,” he told her before kissing her and sliding his length inside her. They took their time, enjoying one another’s bodies. He was thankful that she still loved him and wanted to be a part of his life. When they had finished, she curled up on his chest and stroked his chest hair while he discussed some options for their future.


End file.
